Thailand & Burma Blog Nov 19th, 2016

November 20, 2016 at 3:34 PM

Saturday Nov 19th, 2016 - Exploring the old temple ruins of Bagan.

Bagan is a spectacular plain stretching away from the Ayeyarwaddy River, dotted with thousands of 800-year old temple ruins. Although human habitation at Bagan dates back almost to the beginning of the Christian era, Bagan only entered its golden period with the conquest of Thaton in 1057 AD. The thousands of temples have been built and restored over the centuries. Today we held photo shoots at numerous temples. Then this evening climbed up the very steep steps at Shwesandaw Pagoda to photograph the sunset. This pagoda is very popular and there were plenty of other onlookers too. Tomorrow we continue exploring and photographing the temples in Bagan. Below is a selection of images from todays adventures.

Farmer and oxen plowing the fields near the pagodas on our first stop this morning.

Farmer close up shot.

Monk near one of the larger temples.

I purchased some hand drawn pictures from these children and they were signing them for me.

More of the ancient temples.

Stopping for a few minutes of shopping.

This is Thatbyinnyu Pahto Pagoda, and suffered damage during the major earthquake here in August of this year. This happened the day after the quakes in Italy. Many temples here are currently having repair work done to them.

A paining of young monks in the market square at the pagoda.

Red door and umbrella.

Reflections at Ananda Pagoda this morning, again you can see repair work to the top of the temple. Funding for the repair work for this temple was donated by the country of India.

The large gold Buddha inside Ananda Pagoda.

The golden sunlight warms up the country side and our view from top of Shwesandaw Pagoda allows you to see the thousands of pagodas.

As the sun continues to set, a spectacular view.

Many temples line the skyline.

The view from the east side of the pagoda as the sun starts to dip over the horizon.

Almost gone.

A monk taking a shot of the sunset.

Umbrella shop just outside our dining location this evening.

That’s a wrap on our blog and images from Bagan today. More stories and photos as we continue exploring and photographing the region tomorrow. Good night from Burma.

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Please add a comment

Posted by
Michelle Rondeau
on
Nov 20th, 2016

How curious and Beautiful!!
Great photos, James!
Thanks for sharing!
SPC members .... looking forward to seeing you're photos :-)

Michelle

Posted by
Claudia Viani
on
Nov 20th, 2016

Such beautiful pictures, scenery...enjoying every post.

Posted by
Jette
on
Nov 21st, 2016

Boy..your pictures keep on being amazing! Look forward to each day! In friendship...Jette and RayCDkuTW